Bread Machine Mardi Gras King Cake

We celebrate Fat Tuesday every year before Lent. Since Lent is a season of reflection, prayer, and fasting, traditionally one would use up their sugar and fats before Ash Wednesday. We always have shrimp and sausage gumbo and a King Cake for our simple at home celebration.  

I make this King Cake from dough I make in the bread machine making it pretty easy to prepare.  

Roll the dough out, brush with melted butter, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Fold the dough, press together, then cut into three long strips with a pizza wheel.  Then braid the strips together and form a round shape.  

Place it on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Cover with a lint free towel and let rise.  

Bake for 20-25 minutes, spread with icing while warm then sprinkle with sparkling sugar in Mardi Gras colors.  

Traditionally, you hide a tiny plastic baby in the cake to see who gets it.  If you want to do that, just tuck it into one of the braids underneath after the cake comes out of the oven.  The plastic baby symbolizes baby Jesus and luck and prosperity.  Whoever gets a piece with the baby in it, is king for a day and is supposed to bring the cake the next year.  

How do you make colored sparkling sugar?

You can make your own colored sugar by shaking sparkling sugar and food coloring in a jar.  I used my icing colors to get these vibrant colors.  

Can you make ahead and refrigerate or freeze the king cake to bake later?

If you want to make it a day ahead, prepare the cake, but do not bake it yet.  Then cover with plastic wrap and slow rise in the fridge overnight.  If freezing to bake at a later date, cover with plastic wrap, then put directly in the freezer without rising.  Then let it rise while thawing.  

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Bread Machine Mardi Gras King Cake

​Dough Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm milk

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
 
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons yeast  

Cinnamon Sugar Ingredients: 
2 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Icing Ingredients:

1 to 2 T.  milk

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 T. butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
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1.  Put the dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and run on the dough cycle.

2.  After the dough is done, roll the dough into a large rectangle (on a lightly flowered surface) and spread it with 2 Tablespoons melted butter.  

3.  Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon then spread over the melted butter.  

​4.  Fold the dough, press together, then cut into three long strips with a pizza wheel.  Then braid the strips together and form a round shape.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  

5.  Let rise covered with a lint free towel for a while (an hour or so).  Then bake at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned. 

6.  Mix the icing ingredients together while the cake is baking.  

7.  Spread the icing on soon after it comes out of the oven.  The icing will be thick, but spreads easily on a warm cake.

8.  Sprinkle with Mardi Gras colored sugar.  

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